Thursday, September 30, 2004

Finally, Capcom has released Street Fighter III on the PS2, the long awaited sequel to the greatest fighting game in arcade history is here! Capcom is celebrating Street Fighter II's 15th anniversary ( Oh My God I feel old) with this release by including Street Fighter II Hyper Edition AND the Street Fighter anime movie all on one disk for the low low MSRP of $29.95.Hey Capcom PSSST....I would have paid full price if you had made it ONLINE!I don't know why you make Monster Hunter online, but a 2D fighter that raked in GOD knows much money for you, and single handedly revived the dieing arcade industry here in the states you refuse to make available on line. If I were Ken or Ryu I'd feel like I was punk'd.Anyway I have only played III a few times, et me share my feelings on the game. SFIII is graphically superior to Street Fighter II and the Street Fighter Alpha series but it doesn't have the same.....for lack of a better word SHAAZAM.I remember back in 1990 CJ calls me up and asks me to go with him to the local arcade,"Dude you have to see something!".So I go, not knowing what to expect and when we walk in, there in the front of the arcade is like 30-40 people crowded around 6 Street Fighter II machines, quarters lined the top of the control panel and cheers and jeers heard throughout the arcade. I was mezmerized as I first saw Chun Li do the spinning bird kick against Guile or the Hadoken battle between Ken and Ryu. I used to play Street Fighter I years before where only Ken or Ryu were selectable characters and I knew there were secret moves but could never figure out how to do them. I saw these guys & girls performing these special moves, and it wasn't like watching two blind kids fight...there was strategy, timing,and a psychological edge to the fights. This game was like crack to me and Krogenar, we played for hours on end and always cheered the other on in a fight. When it was released on the SNES I had it on day 1 we would spend whole days fighting on his fathers big screen TV. I played as Ryu and he prefered Ken, we played so much that we had to play with infinate time because we were like yin and yang, we knew each others stragegies, strengths and weaknesses and even with a sliver of health nothing was guaranteed.We still play from time to time but Capcom milked the Street Fighter II franchise till the cow was dry and by the time they churned out III Tekken, Soul Caliber and the 3D fighting engine had taken over as the dominant fighting games at home and in the arcade.Well Street Fighter III is here now, HADOKEN! Well the truth is the sprites are larger but the innovation isn't, the amazing soundtrack that complimented Street Fighter II is not present here (the C in rap is silent), the new fighters....yes they are actually new, have all to familiar special moves and . And my #1 gripe with Street Fighter III is the final boss Gil .M. Bison was, and is probably one of THE best and most recognizable fighting game bosses of all time, he was evil personified without the crazy tenticles and freaky appendages. And he had a great evil (insert pinky into corner of mouth) uniform.....it had a hint of world war two axis uniform design.This guy Gil.....has salon selectives hair and wears a bannana hammock, half his body is red and the other half blue, his pysical attacks are elementally based on......yup you guessed it fire and ice . How uninspiring is Gil, let me count the ways.....And to make him even less suitable as a final boss he has no sub bosses like Vega, Balrog, and Sagat, wait where's Sagat! The Original Street Fighter final boss got the ax, that's not right, he should have a cameo or something. Oh Gill's special move you ask, 100% regeneration in mere seconds .Overall the Street Fighter Anniverary disk is adequate, with good easter eggs like art galleries, and the Street Fighter anime but DAMMIT CAPCOM HEAR ME! PUT STREET FIGHTER ONLINE!!!!

After discovering the Hall of the Gods and seeing the statue of Promathia I bought a copy and installed CoP on my (now defunkt) PS2 HDD, with eight new regions to explore in Vana Diel I decided to visit Bibiki Bay first. Bibiki Bay is located in the southeast region of Mindartia and looks out on the Gugru Blue. Sheltered by a multitude of tiny islands, it's tranquil waters were once used by Tarutaru fishermen who farmed large caches of shellfish and seaweed.The Fishermans guild, seeing the bays potential, recently paid for the right to begin fishing the area again. The guild intends to make it's small fishing vessels; manaclippers, available for use by adventurers. Also, in order to bring ordinary sightseers, the Fishermens guild has just attained permission to land on the beautiful beaches of Pugonorgo Isle from the isles mysterious and wealthy owner....